Chris Sale should beat the Tigers ... but the key word is "should"

UPDATE: Sale wasn't great, but he was good enough to pick up his first win of the year.

BOSTON -- Chris Sale was downright terrible in his season debut last weekend, and he said what you would've expected him to say. He said he hung his team out to dry. He said he was throwing batting practice. He said he was embarrassed.

We've kind of grown accustomed to Sale offering up those harsh criticisms of his own game in the spurts that he's been able to actually play over the past few years.

This time, though, Sale should be able to bounce back. He should. He really, really should.

That's because the Detroit Tigers are off to a brutal start at the plate.

As we all learned from the first three days of this week, nothing regarding the Red Sox can be taken for granted. A three-game set against the lowly Pirates was sure to bring two, maybe three wins. Instead, it brought zero wins and plenty of pain. So nothing about Sale on Thursday should or will be assumed.

Yet he should be able to handle this lineup with ease.

The Tigers managed to surprisingly win the first two games of their most recent series vs. the Astros this week, but that came after getting swept by the Rays in the season-opening series in Tampa. Detroit scored three total runs in those three games. On Wednesday, Detroit plated just a pair of runs, and they enter their home opener with a 2-4 record, matching that of the Red Sox.

As a team, the Tigers are hitting just .204. That's the third-worst team average in MLB. (The Royals are hitting .155, which, as an aside, is incredible.)

As a team, they're slugging .301, second-worst in MLB. (The Royals! At .265! Incredible!)

The team OPS? You guessed it. Second-worst at .552, just a little better than the Royals (.519).

They're not reaching base via free passes, either, having drawn just 13 walks thus far. That's tied for fourth-fewest in MLB.

And -- as you also might have guessed -- they're striking out a ton. The Tigers have struck out 61 times in 206 at-bats, the fourth-most strikeouts in MLB.

Red Sox starting pitching has had a heck of a time keeping the ball in the ballpark this season, having served up an MLB-high 13 taters in six starts this year. Sale gave up three of those long balls in his start vs. Baltimore.

But that shouldn't be a problem on Thursday. It shouldn't. 

The Tigers have just four homers on the season, tied for third-fewest in MLB. The quartet of Matt Vierling, Spencer Torkelson, Jake Rogers and Riley Greene have each hit one dinger apiece.

It's not exactly a murderer's row in that lineup drawn up by A.J. Hinch each day, either. Currently just two Tigers -- Vierling and Greene -- are hitting above .300. Six players with at least 11 at-bats are htiting under .200. Three of them are hitting .100 or worse.

Unsurprisingly, the Tigers are tied for having scored the fourth-fewest runs in all of baseball, averaging three per game.

Clearly -- cleeearrrrrlly -- the ingredients are in place for Chris Sale to have a professional start for the Boston Red Sox on Thursday afternoon. If he has another ugly outing in this one? He may be left speechless.